Gibson pulls away against depleted Dogs in rampant second half

Esperance Bulldogs 7.4-46 defeated by Gibson 23.7-145

The reigning premiers continued to march forward with another win, this time against last year’s grand finalists the Esperance Bulldogs at Esperance Oval.

The last time they met, about a month ago, the two clubs were locked in a pulsating battle that went down to the wire. On Saturday’s fixture the depleted Bulldogs, who are now missing Parsons, White, the Symonds, Griffiths and a handful of others, were jumped by the away side who strode out to a six goal lead, mainly thanks to the bullocking work of Giles McMeikan who kicked four straight to quarter time.

The strong former state rugby player played his first entire game as a true full forward and was rewarded by his hard work ending up with seven majors, including a running 40 metre check side snap in the third quarter.

Esperance fought back valiantly in the second term, their midfielder began to dominate and provided ample supply to Sam Franzone and Jake Douglas who kicked two majors each to pull their side closer to a four goal deficit at the main break.

The Gibson coach was measured and stern at the half time break and the team responded kicking the next nine unanswered goals and building an unassailable lead. The final score line would read the Tigers 99 point victors.

The Gibson Coach Mick Krygger had a yarn to Sean on the Triple M Breakfast Show, about 30 seconds into the audio below

The best for the home side was Kaden Neill who dominated at centre-half back, gobbling up every ball that came his way. Brayden Woods and Jurgens Thiart resisted courageously all game, and much of Gibson’s third quarter surge can put down to Wood’s absence. He was sent to the sidelines with a yellow card.

For the reigning premiers Ben Liddlelow had his best game for the club, dominating the ruck and making it easy for the likes of Curry and McCallion, who had brilliant games. Both were clean and efficient moving forward. Another recruit McFarlane kicked six goals, taking the leading competition goal kickers position and proving he will be a handful for opposition defenders to come.